What are bacteriophages used for?
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The phages have been much used in the study of bacterial genetics and cellular control mechanisms largely because the bacterial hosts are so easily grown and infected with phage in the laboratory. Phages were also used in an attempt to destroy bacteria that cause epidemic diseases, but this approach was largely abandoned in the 1940s when antibacterial drugs became available. The possibility of "phage therapy" has recently attracted new interest among medical researchers, however, owing to the increasing threat posed by drug-resistant bacteria. In 2006 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of bacteriophages that attack strains of Listeria as a food additive on ready-to-eat meat products.
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